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“My five year old keeps asking about our plans ‘over the holidays.’ By ‘the holidays’ she’s referring to her birthday next month.”

Ascendant Studios, the developer of the first-person-shooter-but-with-magic title Immortals of Aveum, is laying off nearly half of its team only a few weeks after releasing the game. CEO Bret Robbins confirmed that the company would be letting go of around 45 percent of its workers. According to Polygon, which first reported the news, that’s around 40 people.

“This was a painfully difficult, but necessary decision that was not made lightly; nevertheless, we have to make this adjustment now that Immortals of Aveum has shipped,” Robbins wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Ascendant will offer the laid-off workers severance packages and help with finding a job elsewhere. The remaining team members will continue to support the game for the time being.

Immortals of Aveum is the first game from Ascendant, which is an independent studio with experienced developers at the helm. However, publisher EA likely didn’t do the game any favors with its release date. 

After a delay pushed back the game by a month to August 22, Immortals of Aveum arrived at around the same time as Baldur’s Gate III,Armored Core VI and Starfield. Delaying Immortals of Aveum by an extra few weeks probably wouldn’t have helped either, given that we’re going into one of the busiest spells of major game releases for several years.

Reports suggest that Immortals of Aveum (which largely garnered middling reviews) didn’t sell well, and low player counts on Steam indicate that’s the case. It had a peak player count of just 751 on that platform, according to SteamDB. Starfield‘s peak player count on Steam alone is more than 440 times that number.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/immortals-of-aveum-developer-ascendant-studios-lays-off-almost-half-its-staff-161523899.html?src=rss

My favorite part of the first two Insomniac Spider-Man games is traveling across the city. The ability to swing from building to building, soaring through the air, all while taking in the sights and sounds of the city is just as enjoyable, if not more so, than anything else in the game. So, earlier this week, when I…

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The Democratic lawmaker may have outdone Nancy Pelosi in his noncommittal answer to being asked about Harris as Biden’s 2024 running mate.

Meta has taken a step towards achieving its goal of making Horizon Worlds more accessible by bringing it to the web and to mobile devices. The company has announced that Super Rumble, the first game out of its in-house studio Ouro Interactive, is now available to a small number of mobile users through the Meta Quest app on Android. It’s also making its way to the app on iOS devices in the coming weeks, while those who want to play on desktop can access it — or request access to it — through Horizon’s official website. 

When Meta launched the first-person shooter, it said that Super Rumble would be one of the first worlds to be available when its new app comes out. It also said that the game will feature cross-platform play, so people can enjoy it with their friends, whether they’re also on mobile, the web or a VR headset. It looks like Meta has stayed true to its word. The company also announced that it’s rolling out more worlds over the next few months to give people a way to hang out, chat and even enjoy free concerts in the metaverse, regardless of what device they’re using. 

Meta explained: “The metaverse should be available to everyone — no matter what device they’re on. And while Quest headsets are the most immersive way to access the metaverse, we believe there should be multiple entry points. Bringing Worlds to more surfaces is a step toward delivering on that vision and opening up the experience to more people.”

Since each device has a different interface, though, Meta had to optimize the game’s controls like mute and pause for mobile devices and computer. It’s unclear how the experiences across platforms differ from each other, but Super Rumble on mobile and the web is still in the testing phase, so players could encounter bugs and other issues.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-starts-testing-horizon-worlds-on-mobile-and-the-web-114028350.html?src=rss